Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-12-31
MoCKED BY A COUGAR.
Having GOrged Himself with Poison' tho
Beast Wnked Upon His Pursuers'

Beast W.nked Upon His Pursuers'
In the Central Park mcnageric Is q
magnificent specimen of the cougar,
or mountain lion. The other after
noon two gentlemen stood by the cage
watching the graceful animal rs 1t
resllessly moved from one end OF the
cage to the other with rythmatical pre-
cision. Last winter" said one, Il
was shooting in the Sierra Tara N &c
mountains, in Mexico, where, from
the signs and tracks i'll the sand-bot-
toned canyons, these animals were
very abundant Al night one would
sit upon the mesa above our camp ana
give out hymns for the coyotes to sing.
1t was an unearthly yell that made the
goosefesh come on the top OF your
head, and led you to even wish to be
back in the land of hand organs. My
guide, Jack Bridges who used to be
with Custer, would sit up in his blank
cts and say: Go it when you can, for
we are going to do You up.
For days we looked for the home
of the lion. and, although we could see
his footprints, which appeared like
very big fOurs of clubs, he did so much
rock walking that it was impossible to
track him to his cave. OAc day we
met M xican smuggling outfit, and
the Captain told us that in n canyon
several miles from our camp there was
q hermit lion, whom he never failed to
get glimpse of when taking the trail
that way. For years back he had
missed seeing him, but of late he had
noticed that the lion was lame, pro ba-
bly, from having run cactus point
into his foot, OF from jumping too
much out of the way of earthquakes.
The smuggler described so accurately
where the lion hung out that we went
over the next morning to get q shot.
THE canyon was just about the
worst place you ever saw. The bottom
was jungle of scrub live oak. so
dense that we had to crawl on our
hands and knees in many places. The
sides were volcanic rock. jagged and
broken with holes and crevices. Jack
was on ahead, and at his heels when
we came face to face with the lion,
who was sitting in the mouth of his
cave trying to stare us out Of counte-
nance. He gave one scratch. and then
. his long tail disappeared around the
corner of u big bowlder, just as we
got sight of him. Neither had chance
TO shoot. Half minute later we saw
him go limping up the side of the di
vide. and when he reached the top he
squatted and looked complacently
down at us. He was provokingly oul
: Of shot, and he knew it as we'll as We
: did.
Then began one of the most scien-
u tific hunts on record. We were both
i as mad as hornets Up hill and down
. dale we followed that brute until dark.
Ho was never over one thousand yards
away, but never in shot. He would
n run, and limp, and squat. blink al us,
/. wiggle his tail Mt uI and seem to Goa,
c lis to follow him. Eleven miles we
!. went in Il bee line from camp, and i
i took us until next morning to ge
= back. We then set to work to put W
n a job on that lion. We went over Il
II the canyon where he lived, killed ;
T. white-tailed deer, took his paunch
and trailed it in circle around the
Q canyon. The carcass we then hung
u high on n limb. five feet out from the
II trunk. Then we cut up the deer
=" liver into thirteen BATS. for luck, anC
.. dosed each with strychnine. We also
/ rubbed the poison into the paunch
~ which we left ut the bottom of tn,
10 tree.
1--WE smiled rs we walked back tt
camp, and Jack told me of an Apache
Indian over at Montezuma mimi,
camp who would tan the lions hid
IS with dcer's brains for one dollar.
e kept awake that night for tive hours
q thinking whom l would give it to, o
p If would keep 1t myself About sun
a rise we struck the lion $ canyon. Whel
lie we got near the deer tree we expecte,
o to pick up the lion every step. But W
It didn't. He had been there, though
s. He had eaten up the thirteen poisone,
s, bats, got away with some of tn
a paunch. climbed up the tree. stretche,
lie himself out, and eaten hunks as bi.
l. as D rby hats out of the deer's care ass
v I'VE spent the day in looking TO
T. the dead lion, but could not find him
III When we turned to go home we sud
40 denly spied his nibs squatting dow
4, on top of the divide winking at us. A
C FL Paso told q merchant this story
st and showed him what was left of tn
poison. He said that the strychnin
we had bought from the smuggler
was only kind of -four, of which
barrelful would not faze chicken
az and that he ought to know, for he pu
rs up the stuff himself IN Y Sssn
I'll -